Hey friends – we’re using this month to ramp up to Halloween, and we’re going to be talking a lot about scares…of all kinds! So today I want to know – besides the monsters under the bed (and the real life monsters we hear about every day), what scares your characters the most?
Julie: What a great question! Honestly, not much scares Lilly at this point in her life, except the thought that something might happen to someone she cares about. For Delia, her journey is full of things she’s afraid of, like speaking in front of people, but Lilly is supporting her through those fears. Note to self, figure out what else scares my characters!
Sherry: I love how fearless Lilly is, Julie. Since I just turned in From Beer to Eternity (the first Chloe Jackson Sea Glass mystery) I’ll tell you something Chloe Jackson is afraid of — water, but she deals with that fear in an unusual way. Sarah, on the other hand, is afraid of a lot of things — mannequins, stalkers, sometimes Mike “the Big Cheese” Titone. But Sarah’s strength comes from overcoming the things she fears.
Barb: Julia Snowden of the Maine Clambake Mysteries handles murder investigations with aplomb. Her romantic life is a different story. In the last few books she’s learned some things about her boyfriend Chris that scare her, for him and for their future. There’s nothing to be gained by worrying, but Julia can’t help it.
Jessie: Barb, I think that is one of the things that makes Julia feel so real and relatable despite the body count! As to my characters, Edwina is worried about her economic situation and also about her reputation in the village of Walmsley Parva. She spends considerable time considering what new traumas her jobbing gardener Simpkins is thrusting upon her gardens. Beryl, on the other hand, is afraid of very little. In fact, as a celebrated adventuress, she has built her name on fearlessness. So, it is with some shock and a soupçon of delight, that Edwina realises that Beryl is afraid of children. She is less delighted to learn her friend, like so many others who served at the front during the Great War, is terrified of being trapped underground.
Edith/Maddie: I’m glad you built in a fear for Beryl, Jessie. Because who among us is totally fearless? In my books, Robbie Jordan is claustrophobic. Her fear of closed-in spaces is seriously put to the test in one of the books. Mac Almeida is a neat freak bordering on obsessively neat, and she’s afraid of disrupting her tidy life with commitment (and babies…). Rose Carroll is afraid of losing her independence, and while her betrothed, David, assures her it’s fine with him for her to continue her midwifery practice after they marry, she’s not sure it will go smoothly – especially if his mother has anything to say about it!
Liz: Love these answers, girls! For Maddie James in the Cat Cafe Mysteries, relationships are her biggest fear – and she manifests this by usually picking people who are commitment phobes as well. Here’s hoping things will turn out different for her this time…
Readers, what about you? What’s your biggest fear? Tell us below!